124. Mythos Beer

Smoothness 4
Cost 3
Piss-factor 4
Aftertaste 4
Coolness 2

Another beautiful day in Sydney found us wandering round Crows Nest looking for somewhere to have a late lunch after a failed attempt to get to Manly for pizza. We wondered around the area for a good 30 mins looking for something to replace the stone-fired delights that poor bus services had prevented us reaching.

First stop was the Narembeen pizza place we had been to before but also it was a Sunday and wasn’t due to open for another couple of hours. Instead we ended up in a Greek restaurant the name of which authentically began with an “X” (although I can’t remember what it was called).

As with every restaurant we visit, my first port of call is the beer list on the off chance that I find a new beer that I’ve never tasted. As luck would have it there was Mythos - a Greek beer which came in a bottle that reminded me of Club 18-30 holidays and also tasted like that – easy to drink but with the trade off that it would probably give you riotous hangover. Nothing wrong with one on a Sunday with lunch though.

122 -123. Little Italy and Forester Cabernet Merlot 2005

It had been a long time since I’d managed to get any social time with my work colleagues however, all things come to those whole wait. The AMC exam had been the main bane of our social life but as it was now all over everyone had more free time.

I stuck a notice on the wall of the coffee room for a “Post-AMC Dinner” and within a few days there were about 20 names of people wanting to join us. Birgit booked a restaurant in a famous part of town called Little Italy inside the aptly named Italian Forum. The restaurant itself was called Dante and although most folk were over an hour late we did manage to fill the 25-strong table much to the relief of the over-bearing concierge.

Starters consisted of big plates with garlic bread, bruchetta, deep fried prawns and fried baby squid. It looked like far too much but since the meal started at 5:30pm and most folk didn’t arrive till 6:30pm it kept the rest of us satisfied. It also meant that we had something in our stomach to absorb the far-to-easy-to-drink Forester Red that we ordered. At $33 per bottle it was probably the most expensive wine we’ve drank since arriving in Sydney but it was bloody good. Pure nectar and even Isla was glugging away on it as hard as she was able - not like her especially as she was planning a 12mile run the next day!

For the main course I had the best Prawn Linguine that I’ve ever tasted and I could have eaten two helpings (not that the portions were small). Dessert was a disappointing attempt at chocolate sponge which was akin to airplane food. However, everything else had been so good I ignored the pudding let-down and ate it.

All to soon dinner was over and the families headed home while the rest of us headed out for a couple of drinks. It was a bit of a one man show though, as Manish insisted – Amit-style – of getting in a massive $125 round for everyone which consisted of shots, spirits, and beers. By the time we had drank our way through that most folk were failing and so we decided to call it a night and headed home.

Yuri was driving (thinkfully) and gave us a run back to St Leonards. Charles was also riding along and was suffering a bit from all the red wine he’d drunk and insisted that the Sat Nav in the car had no idea where it was going and kept arguing with it at every turn. Poor Yuri had no idea where he was going but luckily he found his way to ours in a relatively short space of time. Unlucky for him he had another 18km of Charles’ ranting still to go.

So the night was a real success and everyone seems to be up for doing it once a month or so. Watch this space.

121. Bondi Blonde Lager

Smoothness 4
Cost 3
Piss-Factor 4
Aftertaste 3
Coolness 2

This was a bit of a find. Not because it’s a particularly tasty and not because its that cool a beer but because it’s a low carb beer and only has 100 calories per bottle and yet it still manages to be 4.5%. It’s also not too bad on the taste-buds and relatively easy to drink. I suppose the low calorie count is just as well…

116 – 120 Wollongong and Kiama

We had a weekend off together for the first time in ages. I was supposed to be working an odd shift due to the fact that the rest of the department were sitting the AMC exam and they had nobody else to cover. If I’d agreed to do that then it would have meant that I would only have one full, non-on-call, free weekend in 15 weeks so I refused.

116. Kiama
Instead of working we jumped on the train to Kiama which is a beautiful seaside town about 100km south of Sydney. The town would not have looked out of place in the East Neuk of Fife and the little cafes, fish markets and fishing boats could have been flown in straight from Anstruther. It was a real pleasure to explore.

There are 2 of the most spectacular beaches there and the surf casually rolls in creating mile long barrels. There are a couple of old fashioned out-door sea-pools which nobody seemed to be interested in using but I’m sure they would be packed during the summer. They were mirror still and were stark contrast to the swells and surf that buffeted the coast line.

Walking round the headland, the coastline seemed lunar and bleak but every time a wave washed up on the rocks the greens of the kelp and other weeds of the sea showed you how rich the environment actually was. Closer inspection revealed rock pools full of crabs and a plethora of marine birds. Even the outdoor pool was full of shell fish and multitudes of zig-zagging minnows.

The whole area had that feel to it that you get when you are visiting a place from your youth – a place where déjà vu is round every corner and the local children remind you of the innocence that you once had when the world was only ice-cream, kites, sandcastles and rock pools. Actually it made me feel a bit sad in the way that thinking about a long dead pet does.

We parked ourselves on some of the moon-esque rocks and lay there soaking in the suns rays and despite it being almost winter it was still in the mid 20s. A few chapters of our books later and with the tide coming in we gathered our stuff and made our way in search of lunch which consisted of some dubious battered fish and mountains of chips which actually tasted rather nice but was impossible to finish.

117. Kiama Blowhole
Relatively near to the train station is Kiama’s major attraction – the Blowhole. It’s a small tunnel in the rock of the head land that ends in a chasm about 4 metres across further inland. The ocean swells run up the tunnel and when they reach the end of their journey, the only other place for the water to go is up which results in fountains of sea water being thrown into the air. It’s quite spectacular and on a rough day I’m sure that the plumes must reach such heights that we were not privy to during our time there. Still it was a good photo opportunity and that was evident by the hordes of tourists there snapping gigabytes of pixels.

118. Wollongong
After we’d had our fill of Kiama we got back on the train and made our way to Wollongong where we had a room booked in one of the local hotels. We arrived at the relatively posh Rydges Hotel and to our chagrin there appeared to be lots of groups of 20 to 30-something men staying there obviously for a big night out on the town. Being as Wollongong is the second largest town in NSW I suppose it was to be expected.

After dumping our stuff in our room we went down to the front desk and asked for some advice as to where we should go to eat. Kiera St was full of restaurants and was only a short walk from the hotel so we went there. Although we had heard rumour of a Malaysian restaurant (which we had never eaten) we couldn’t find it and so settled for Vietnamese. It was reasonably tasty but the “salt and pepper deep-fried soft shell crab” that I chose was a bit too fishy and left me parched.

119. Chang Beer

Smoothness 3
Cost 3
Piss-factor 3
Aftertaste 3
Coolness 3

Luckily there were 2 things on the drinks menu that I’d never tried before. The first was Chang Beer which was decidedly the most average beer that I’ve ever drank. There was nothing special about it in any way and also nothing particularly wrong with it. It was just… well, average. It was the Tuesday or John Major or Reebok of beers and it did an average job of quenching my thirst.

120. Ruskie Lemon

Smoothness 2
Cost 3
Piss-factor 2
Aftertaste 4
Coolness 1

The second beer that I chose was from the Premium Beer list and I was expecting something along the lines of a lemony weiss bier. You can imagine my shock when the waitress brought me what can only be described as a Smirnoff Ice. I didn’t quite know what to do – Vietnamese food and alco-pops are not a recognised combination. In saying that, the lemon seemed to go quite well with the crab although I didn’t opt for a second one.

After dinner, the groups of drunk predatory males and scantily clad female prey scared us into and early night of fizzy white wine (which unfortunately turned out to be flat) and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl which we fell asleep too. We had an early start and made our way back to Sydney without really seeing anything of Wollongong. That said, a later consult with the Rough Guide revealed that there really wasn’t much to see in Wollongong anyway. Oh well!

114 & 115. Sri Lankan Food and Yalumba Shiraz/Viognier 2003

The Blue Elephant was one of the few restaurants in the area that we had not tried yet and it just happened to be a style of food we had never experienced before so a visit made sense.

I booked a table to 7pm since the menu we got through the door said “Booking Essential” and after all, it was a Friday night so most places were busy and reserving a table made sense. However, when we got there we are the only customers and I worried that was how it was going to stay for the rest of the evening. It might have something to do with the “Jazz Band” that were sound checking at one end of the restaurant.

However, we were pleasantly surprised when the place began to fill up. There were couples, families and various other age groups represented and once we were served our meals it was evident that they were there for the brilliant food.

We started with a “Plate of Tasty Morsels” which was a vast selection of starters that almost filled us to the point of not wanting a main course. However, we continued on and had “Jo Jo’s Chicken” and a sort of prawn curry with garlic and coriander roti, all of which was exceptionally tasty, if a bit to spicy.

It was all helped down with generous glasses of the Yalumba which went really well with the spices but unfortunately didn’t have enough alcohol in it to drown out the cheesy 80’s music that the so-called “Jazz” 2-piece insisted on playing

113. Rutherglen Muscat

I was walking out the hospital on the morning of my last night shift last week. I had a massive smile on my face as I knew I had the next 4 days off and could relax after the stress and responsibility of nights. As I pressed the security button on the wall to let me out into the waiting room one of the nurses shouted after me.

It was Jayne, the emergency nurse practitioner that I’ve worked with a few times in Fast-track which is where the walking wounded and minor complaints are treated. “Are you going home?” she asked, “Yeah,” I replied, “I’ve just finished nights.”

“Well come with me,” she insisted, “I’ve got something for you.”

We went up to her office and she opened up one of the locked filing cabinets and took out a bottle of wine. “This is for you.” It was a bottle of Muscat and she went on to say that apparently I’d been a great help to her since I started working her and it was to say thanks. Also we’d spent a great deal of time talking about dessert wines the previous week and she had a few of these lying around. She and her husband know some guy at one of the Rutherglen wineries and they get all of these at “below-cellar-door” prices. It's amazing where "guessing with confidence" can get you!

I opened it as soon as I got home and had a taste. It was delicious, sweet and syrupy but that only just covered the powerful alcohol taste as it was about 15%. If you click on the picture above for a close up you’ll see the “fingers” running down the side of the glass which shows just how strong it was. Needless to say, it didn’t last very long but I really liked the bottle so I used it to make some home-made chilli and lemongrass olive oil. Looks good doesn’t it!

112. Powerhouse Museum

I’m really getting a bit sick of museums and Sydney has loads of them. However, this place really was quite interesting. I’m not sure why it’s called The Powerhouse Museum as that made me think it would be full of electrical chambers that you could stand in while lightning crashed around you and working demonstrations of solar, wind, gas, coal, oil and nuclear power stations with accompanying history – the sort of place you take the kids (and geeks like me) for that interactive experience.

Instead it was more of a journey though the scientific ages of man including period information, art galleries, architechture displays and design exhibits ranging from the use of the loom to the finer points of cybernetics via the route of the steam train, the advent of electricity and plastics and the kitch furniture of the 60’s and 70’s with a significant amount of glass-blowing thrown in for good measure.

Some of the exhibits were truly fascinating and worth spending extra time examining however, at parts it felt like it lost its way especially when it started talking about fashion shows and what it was like to be a house wife in the 1800’s. Not exactly what springs to mind when you hear the word Powerhouse. I also found it a bit mind numbing when I read the phrase, “This is an example of what a gentleman of the era might have worn…” for the 7th time. I must have seen that written about 50 times now in Sydney museum. It’s like the organisers run out of ideas and have a few empty glass cabinets that they don’t know what to do with when some smart-arse says, “I know what we can put in there…” Idiot!

That said it’s probably one of the better museums in Sydney and it’s ultra-modern in comparison to the others. It is a bit difficult to get to if you don’t know the route and although you can see it from miles around it takes ages before you feel like you are getting any closer. At $10 admission though it’s certainly worth persevering through the maze of roads, bridges and pathways in Darling Harbour.

111. Taronga Zoo

I really don’t know where to start with this one.

Firstly, to get there you have to take the most beautiful trip, by far, across the harbour on the Taronga Ferry and of course you can combine your return ferry ride with the cost of entry into the zoo for $31.

When you arrive your first port of call is the cable car which takes you up to the top of the zoo as it’s on the side of a hill. The views of the zoo are great but also this is probably one of the best views of the Sydney skyline from the north side of the harbour. Make sure you’ve got your camera ready as it’s a short trip.

Once we were at the top we grabbed a map from the info booth and did our best job to see as much as possible. The place was only open until 5pm and we arrived late at 1pm so time was of the essence.
Our first stop was the chimpanzee enclosure. It was really interesting to see them being fed and watch how there interactions were so similar to humans. After lunch the adults all seemed to chill out and were lazing about in the rock pool and literally sunbathing on the rocks. There was a short talk by one of the keepers but nobody really paid attention to her as they were to busy watching the youngsters jump around the park.

Next stop was the giraffes which were unbelievable and totally surreal. There was nothing particularly special about the animals themselves or their pen (which seemed tiny next to these 18 foot tall beasts). What was incredible was the fact that they probably have one of the best views in the whole of NSW with the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House as their back drop. Again some bloke was giving a chat about why they had such dark tongues and things but everyone was too busy taking photos of the background to really pay attention to him.

We went to see the seal show next which was hilarious and informative. There were a couple of animals involved and as well as getting them to do tricks and show off, the trainers and use them as a teaching platform for the audience. The set was quite small and not on the “Florida” scale but still was a great deal of fun and certainly worth watching.

Over the rest of the afternoon we saw Kodiak bears, red pandas, clouded leopards, millions of birds, fruit bats, deer, mountain goats and elephants to name a few. The day ended with one of the best show ever. In a little amphitheatre in at the south west corner of the zoo was the bird show with a backdrop to rival that of the giraffes. It started suddenly with flocks of parrots and doves flying over head like a John Woo movie then the handler came out and the show proper began. There were about 12 different birds that they talked about from parakeets to eagles and they had them flying about the amphitheatre, swooping low over the heads of the audience. Some of them even flew up to volunteers and stole money out of their hands, returning to the trainer to drop the cash in her breast pocket.

It was over too soon and it was almost closing time so we walked back up the hill to catch the cable car back down for one more look at the view. Spectacular. With out a doubt one of the best things to do in Sydney and I’m surprised it took us 4 months to get round to it.

110. Sydney Monorail

I don’t know about you but when I think of the word Monorail what springs to mind is a sleek, ridiculously fast, super efficient, ultra-quiet, Japanese filled, gravity defying, engineering miracle train.

With that in mind, I though it was time that we had a shot on the Sydney Monorail. We’d had seen it every now and again in the city centre snaking between the building and skyscrapers about 10m off the ground. However, trying to find the stations was a bit difficult as they are all hidden on the second floors of various unrelated buildings. Once we did find it we paid for the $4 round trip token and then headed onto the platform.

It didn’t take long for us to realise that our previous thoughts about the monorail were total misconceptions. Firstly the platform was filled with the obligatory fat American tourists, and once we boarded, we discovered the cabins were too. Each carriage was tiny and only sat 6 people (or 2 Americans) and the A/C was on full blast at a setting of about -20C.

We were lucky that we got seats because if we had been standing then I think we would have got off at the next stop. The train slowly pulled away from the platform… and continued slowly, and noisily, round the 15 minute loop. There was no view at all with the exception of an occasional glimpse into someone’s office and although we were above the street and all it’s pedestrians, I couldn’t help thinking that they were walking faster than we were monorailing.

All in all this has probably been the worst and most pointless thing we have done since leaving home. It’s no wonder that the only people on it were tourists. I mentioned it at work the next day and almost in unison the whole department said “You wanna stay away from the monorail – it’s crap!” Hindsight’s a wonderful thing.